Where European customers might baulk is at the price, and it isnt cheap in the USA, either.
The quoted cost is $310 from Western Digital, but closer to $300 online.
Thats only $23 more than the 12TB option, making this drive better value.
However, it’s more expensive than the similarly specifiedSeagateIronWolf Pro.
Western Digital believes they should be highly resilient, but all drive makers claim this high ground.
For those buying outside the USA, the pricing is less competitive.
Thats 62.5% more expensive.
However, conventional recording technology does deliver better performance overall.
The electronics of the WD141KFGX are, as we should expect, made for resilience and reliability.
It uses the well-considered Avago drive controller, and the motors are handled by a common Renesas part.
But plenty of regions experience them and other issues that this design is resilient against.
The critical shock resistance component is 3D Active Balance Plus, which weve seen previously on Enterprise-class drives.
What this technology aims to achieve is for drives in an array to avoid resonance synchronisation.
This could cause excessive wear and noise if all the drives performed identical options at the same time.
Therefore, if you have 100 of these drives, one will theoretically die every 2.85 years.
It’s debatable if that is how drive reliance truly works, but its a way of adjusting expectations.
What TLER does is completely disable all background operations on the HDD.
The maximum rated workload is specified for operating at typical temperature of 40C.
Workload Rate will vary depending on your hardware and software components and configurations."
Typically, benchmarks dont align because the way they test is inherently different.
But here, many of the synthetic tests deliver almost identical numbers.
However, what this might translate into for a NAS could be pretty small.
But in most respects, its a good alternative.
Even the 16TB drive is under $300, and an 18TB model is available.
It has the same cache size as the Red Pro and similar performance but only has a three-year warranty.
Some premium pricing might be acceptable if Western Digital had a superior quality or service reputation.
But those are choices for IT Managers to make and justify to the finance department.
The WD Red Pro series are fine drives performing reasonably well and are designed for NAS deployments.
It only comes down to the cost and if you consider them worth the extra.
Should I buy the WD Red Pro 14TB
Buy it if…
There are features in the Red Pro that only work with others from this series.
If performance is the critical factor, then the WD Red Pro isnt the right choice.
